Page 21 of Maid in Heaven

“Yeah, I have. Twice. I audited a class at the community college, and they were always having us paint weird things. I remember doing one of a fruit bowl with bananas and grapes and stuff. The other was a spray bottle with a pair of those yellow dish gloves underneath. Both wereatrocious.They both looked like a four-year-old’s handiwork, but I still really enjoyed it.”

“Aw, I’m sure they looked great. You still have either of ‘em?”

“Last year, I hit a busted tire on the highway, and the SUV had a small leak. Think I used the fruit bowl to protect the garage floor from oil ‘til my mechanic could get me in.”

Will chuckled at the mental image of that. “What about all the paint-by-numbers? I don’t remember seeing any in your house.”

For a moment, Ava had forgotten Will had already been inside her house. She still knew so little about him.

“I don’t hang them up. It’s just a little something I do for fun.There’s a little plaza over there on Maple Street where I usually donate the nicer ones when I’m done.”

“Oh no kidding, my daughter’s pediatrician’s on Maple.” There was a silence between them for a moment, filled with nothing but the gentle whoosh of the icy breeze, the jingle of identification tags, and the heavy panting of two excited dogs. “Wait a sec, did you do one of a girl with her arm around a red fox?”

Ava could only smile and bashfully bury her pink face beneath the collar of her petticoat.

“That’syou? You did that?” Will seemed shocked.

Ava nodded slightly, eyes unable to hold his intense gaze. Slowly, like a turtle, her face emerged again. “What aboutyou?What do you do for fun?”

“Well, due to my, um,uniquejob, I have to stay fit, so I go to the gym quite a bit.”

“Ew, for fun?”

Will laughed and shook his head. “Ispend a lot of time teaching my daughter about classic cinema.”

Kuda and Gremlin erupted in a symphony of barks for a moment before taking off again, romping and tumbling playfully into each other in the snow.

“I’m also a pretty avid reader,”Will continued.

“Oooh, color me impressed. I don’t see that often.”

“What? Maids who can read?”

“No, just…menreading. I guess that’s a tad sexist.”She glanced up at him and then shifted her eyes down to the snow at her feet, nudging some of the slush into a neat pile with her boot. “What genres do you read?”

“I’m a sucker for romance.” He smiled bashfully.

“Seriously?”

His tone grew quiet as if he was passing along a secret in a room full of people. “Seriously, there’s like… alotof steamy stuff in some of those.” His eyes bulged.

“One of womankind’s best-kept secrets, I suppose.”

“I also love a good legal or political thriller. Or even a good, binge-ablemystery series.”

“A little murder and intrigue with your mysterious sweetness?”

“Yeah,” he kicked at a small, yellowed snowdrift, too, “I have a whole bookcase full of Grisham and Patterson at home. Bingeing my way through Castillo’sBurkholderseries right now. It’s so good.”

“I’m still stuck on what you led with.” She giggled. “I gotta say, most men wouldn’t admit that they read romance.”

“True. I think some men view them as some sort ofcompetition. I think guys think theycan’t live up to the men in the books, and that can be threatening. But the way I look at it, it’s more likea guide to what women want, what secretly drives them wild. It’s also good for me, professionally. Sortalike research.When they hire me, women don’t want some single-dad divorcee who is just trying to pay his bills. Most want to feeldesired. They want to feelheard. They want to feelpowerful.”

“Oh, I see. So reading those is likehavinga sexy secret weaponof sorts.” Ava smirked and found herself hopelessly lost in his shockingly blue eyes.

He was a man. Arealman. Open and passionate. And thatphysique… even in the dead of winter, she felt herself warm at the thought ofit. The way the lines of his clothes hugged his body…

“Right.” His voice snapped her from her thoughts of what he looked like wearing the snug policeman’s uniform on her front porch. “I also really enjoythe concept of two people going down these totally different paths having to overcomeall the odds and fight for theirhappy-ever-after.”

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